They’re little. And?

It’s 6pm on a Friday night, friends are at the pub or on their way home. I’m sitting at my kitchen table staring out the window into the grey and slowly darkening street. I hate this time of day. It reminds me that my time is slipping away. I’ve been asked to create an online workshop. At first I said ‘Sure, no problem’. I mean, why not? I love workshops. No sweat. Right? Wrong. You see it’s my firstonline workshop and although Neil has kindly taken me through everything I need to know, I find myself so blocked by the unknown, that I can’t even fool myself (I tried – ‘pretend it’s a face to face one, then rewrite it to match the context’ I said to myself this morning, and again throughout the day). So here I am, procrastinating might be the best word for it, but for morale let’s call it brainstorming. I decided that writing a blog post was more constructive than looking out the window and maybe I could use it to bash around some ideas before writing my workshop. So here goes.

The topic of my workshop is VYL. Voracious Yelping Leeches. Sorry, tiredness and delirium setting in. In fact, teaching Very Young Learners is one of my favourite things in the world to do. I could be on to something though. It could be an obvious start. What the hell does VYL mean? And yes, maybe they are voracious yelping leeches, but why? And what impact will this have on lessons and teaching. Look! I’m doing it! I’m scratching out a plan already 🙂

The obvious start: What are VYLs? But first, indulge me while I rewind a little bit.

Why a workshop on VYL?

Aside from there being a very active VYL discussion currently on the YL Google group, it’s relevant for teaching TEFL today. I could go into Critical Period Hypothesis and a debate over whether younger is better for mastery of a language blah blah blah, but let’s face it, the real reason we are teaching more and more VYL is because there is a market for it. The parents want it. They are customers, we’re the providers, right?

So, if we look at the (by the way totally fabulous book) Very Young Learners (Reilly and Ward, 1997) it’s stated the main ‘bonus’ teaching VYL is ‘no strict syllabuses to follow, no tests and no performance objectives to be met’. Cool huh! Hmmm. While I agree with what they later go on to say about the absence of pressure leading to an ‘enjoyable experience’ how does a VYL virgin (for lack of a better term) start. Walking into a classroom with some great activities is great and all, but a few bits and pieces of basic knowledge and some sort of structure surely leads to a more focussed and relaxed teacher.

So. What should a ‘VYL for Beginners’ workshop do, apart from give the teachers a bit of confidence before striding on into the lion’s den, oops, I mean VYL classroom ;)?

What are VYLs? (as we already established, a good start)

What are their characteristics and the implications of these in the classroom? (sounds useful enough)

How about some defined pathways designed to meet our goals? Validating teaching VYL to sceptics who say it is ‘just’ playing games and singing songs? Pleasing stakeholders in an increasingly competitive industry? (oooh, the heavy stuff)

What are VYL’s?

Basically, they are little. Very little. So what comes with being little?

Imagine yourself looking into the window of a VYL classroom. What do you see?

Excitement

Energy

Smiles

Tantrums

Laughter

Games

Play

Music

Songs/ chants

Stories

Colours

Pictures. Lots of pictures

Toys

‘make believe’

Little things e.g. little chairs, little scissors

Little People. People with their own little personalities, their own feelings, their own histories and backgrounds, their own (limited) experiences of the world, their own ideas about how the world works.

People between the ages of 2-6 (give or take a year), who are not yet in formal schooling and more than likely not yet reading or writing.

What are the characteristics of VYL and the implications for teaching?

Time to ‘accommodate’ and ‘assimilate’ a little bit of theory. Behold, my attempt at putting Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky etc into simple terms, and more importantly the implications in the classroom.

Fun activities designed to motivate the child by the task over outcome

And let’s not forget

Little to no written text

Not a big enough list yet? How about we try this one on for size. VYL actively try to construct meaning. i.ethey need some thinking time. What’s more, they:

have a very limited experience of the world

depending on their background, are often unaware of the concept of other countries, languages, and cultures

not unlike older learners recognise more than they can produce

are risk takers and like to guess and predict

Time to add some more things to your VYL list (pffft to those who thought it was all about games and songs!)

Language repeated and presented in variety of contexts, which VYL can relate to own experiences

Focus on recognition before production

Stories to allow VYL to predict and make sense of new language whilst using their imaginations

Quiet activites such as craft to help consolidate language and give ‘thinking’ time

Think I’m done? Think again my friends. Vygotsky and Bruner have a little beauty which, whilst not rocket science, often goes against what some people think learning is all about. VYL learn more with help. Go figure. They get by with a little help from their (grown up) friends…..do you need anybody…oops! Short singing interlude. Back to the serious stuff. Aside from all the technical stuff about the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ and ‘scaffolding’ etc it makes sense that a little bit of help can be confidence boosting and that a positive first language learning experience is really what it’s all about. I’m totally cool with this one. Why? In my VYL classrooms my little lovelies;

participate more when they feel safe and produce more language when singing songs or saying chants

are often (but not always) excellent mimics (I am proud to have Czech pre-school students with an Australian accent), but whilst impressive in terms ofpronunciation does not always equal understanding orretention of language

It seems a few ramblings have turned into a rather long post. And it’s now 8pm on a Friday night and hubby is hungry. BUT, stay tuned for part 2. They’re little. Now what? Quite possibly (If I don’t get distracted on facebook, twitter or youtube) some key elements to a VYL programme i.e. those defined pathways I mentioned and some practical ideas.

Great post Kylie and agree with Pan :). You doing so well with your blogging. I love the pic too :)). My little preschool are definitely overtaking my business class at the moment. They are such an inspiration.!